Student jailed 52 months over fake police phone scam
Bastillepost · 3 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A 23-year-old defendant, Ng Ching-long, was sentenced in the District Court to 52 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud and one count of money laundering over his role in a phone scam targeting two women. Prosecutors said he posed as a mainland public security officer and a Hong Kong police officer, used a fake police warrant card, collected about HK$1.6 million from the victims, and later channelled funds through a Bitcoin wallet. Deputy District Judge Lai Kim-wah accepted the prosecution’s application for a sentence uplift, ruling that phone scams and impersonation of officials remain prevalent and socially damaging. Other charges, including three further money-laundering counts and one count of possessing a false instrument, were left on the court file and not proceeded with.
Key Points
- The defendant, 23-year-old student Ng Ching-long, admitted two fraud charges and one money-laundering charge in District Court case DCCC 1073/2025.
- One victim, Chan Wing-sze, was told on 12 May 2024 that her mainland mobile number was tied to multiple fraud cases involving RMB3.12 million.
- Ng met Chan in Kowloon Bay on 16 May as a “special commissioner”, showed a fake warrant card in the name of “Lam Chi-long”, and later collected HK$1.5 million in Tuen Mun on 21 May.
- Another victim, Hung Yuk-mui, received a bogus Guangzhou public security call in mid-April 2024 and handed Ng HK$100,000 in Tai Po on 14 May after he showed the fake card.
- After his arrest on 29 July 2024, Ng admitted printing the fake warrant card himself, depositing proceeds into a Bitcoin wallet, taking HK$10,000, and separately handling HK$859,000 on 25 July.
Why It Matters
The case shows how phone scam syndicates can rely on local recruits to play in-person collection roles, making deception more convincing and losses harder to stop once victims are isolated by secrecy demands. The court’s decision to increase sentence severity underlines that impersonation scams remain a serious law-and-order concern in Hong Kong, even where a defendant is not the mastermind.